Attention YA Public Librarians: enter to win one of two sets of 10 autographed Eternal bookmarks to use for summer reading giveaways! To enter, email me (scroll and click envelope) with your name and snail/street mail address and type "Eternal bookmarks" in the subject line. Deadline: June 8!

Cynthia Leitich Smith Contest

Do you live in Carbon County, Pennsylvania or the surrounding area? If so, you are eligible for the Cynthia Leitich Smith contest from Reading Escapes!

"Enter to win your favorite book by Cynthia! Email us to tell us what your favorite book by Cynthia is and why in less than 50 words by June 30 to enter to win a copy of it or another book of your choice by her. If you haven't read any of her books yet, just let us know which book you would like to read and why you think you would like it." See contact and more information.

More News

Stepping Up Your Game from Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent. Peek: "Publishers right now want the surest of sure things that are so sure it beats surety over its sure head. And agents have to adjust what they take on accordingly." Read a Cynsations interview with Nathan.

Writing Tips: Who Wants to be a Children's Author? from Verla Kay's Blog. Peek: "I never set out to be an author. I never wanted to write. Actually, I hated writing as a child and never dreamed I would grow up to be a writer. As a teenager, I wrote many poems and stories and tucked them away in a folder, to be shown only to my very best of friends." Read a Cynsations interview with Verla Kay.

#BEA09 from Harper Studio. Peek: "Way way way less galleys. In fact, HarperCollins gave out egalleys." Note: I wonder if we'll be seeing a cutback in galleys at the teacher-librarian conferences as well.

Forest of Reading® Winners: "Thousands of schools and libraries across Ontario came together at the Harbourfront for the annual Forest of Reading – Festival of Trees on May 13 & May 14, 2009. Over the two days, more than 7,000 Ontario school children come together for the announcement of the hotly anticipated winners of Blue Spruce, Red Maple, White Pine and Silver Birch." Congratulations to: Mélanie Watt, author of Chester (Kids Can Press/University of Toronto Press); Alan Cumyn, author of Dear Sylvia (Groundwood Books/HarperCollins Canada); and Mahtab Narsimhan, author The Third Eye (Dundurn Group/University of Toronto Press). See the whole list.

Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers Contest: "The prize of a book contract (on the publisher’s standard form) covering world rights for a hardcover and a paperback edition, including an advance and royalties, will be awarded annually to encourage the writing of contemporary young adult fiction. The award consists of $1,500 in cash and a $7,500 advance against royalties." Source: BronzeWord Latino Authors.

Marvelous Marketer: Illustrator Jim Di Bartolo from Shelli at Market My Words. Peek: "..if you're not succeeding with your current style, maybe consider something drastically different with your technique or materials. Or if you're getting a lot of feedback that seems to be suggesting that the foundation of your skills is lacking, you don't have to quit necessarily."

Purple Prose People Eaters by Tabitha Olson at Writer Musings. Peek: "Purple prose is a choice of words that aren’t there for the sake of the story, they’re there for the sake of themselves. The words go beyond packing a punch and leave bruises on the reader."

Win an 8GB iPod Touch and Signed Audiobooks! from Listening Library/Random House. Peek: "f you could go on a fantasy road trip with a character (or characters!) from your favorite series, where would you go? What would you do along the way? How would you travel? Create a video and show us! Best selling authors Libba Bray, Tamora Pierce and Rick Riordan will judge the videos and choose three grand prize winners!" Note: "The contest will open for entries June 1 to Aug. 17." See more information. Source: Libba Bray. Read Cynsations interviews with Libba and Rick.

What Kind of Tree Are You? Win an ARC of The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z! from author Kate Messner. Deadline: 11 p.m. EST June 5. Note: The contest is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. From Kate: "This humorous middle grade novel, due out with Walker on Sept. 1, is about a girl whose 'beautiful Vermont autumn' is being ruined by the monster school leaf collection project she left to the last minute. To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment on Kate's blog about what kind of tree you'd be if you were a tree."

Writing and Canine Criticism from Brian's Blog: Writer Talk. Peek: "Last week my Old English Sheepdog, Merlin, pulled some of the manuscript pages of my latest WIP from my desk and began to eat them." Note: Brian Yansky is the author of two YA novels. His third, Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences, will be published by Candlewick in 2010. Brian is based in Austin. Read a Cynsations interview with Brian.

Talking with Shelley Tanaka by Barbara A. Ward and Terrell A. Young (author) from Booklist. Peek: "What was important about her (Amelia Earhart) was her passion for flying—and that's where the book started, of course—but the other reason I chose to start with that anecdote was that it actually set her in the history of airplanes." Source: Leda Schubert.

Eerie Books: a horror specialty shop at 205 N. Ballard Street in Wylie, Texas. Also features horror art, movies & DVDs, a book club, storytime, and much more!

Five Stages of Procrastination from Kristi Holl at Writer's First Aid. Peek: "This brings the deadline closer and creates more pressure. You delay starting so long that you can't really be tested on your actual writing ability (what you are capable of if you’d started sooner)."

Librarian Koren Stembridge: Forgive and Forget by Donna Liquori from School Library Journal. Peek: "When Koren Stembridge heard that kids in Boston's public schools avoided the library because they had late fines or lost materials, the programs and youth services manager for the Boston Public Library helped launch 'New Start,' a mass amnesty campaign for the 57,000 kids with outstanding fines. It worked. Many of Boston's youth came back." Source: Elizabeth O. Dulemba.

Mindful or Multitasker by Kristi Holl from Writer's First Aid. Peek: "Is there honestly an alternative to the chicken-with-her-head-cut-off chickenfrenzied multi-tasking that many of us use to get through our days?" See also Kristi on Unblock: Two Techniques.

Living the Dream by Sarah Prineas. Peek: "One of the first things I learned is that being an author is not the same as being a writer. The writer part is pretty much the same as it always was. Authoring is the add-on to that. Being an author means doing school visits, traveling, giving presentations, being 'on' and friendly, spending time and energy on being the human representative of a book. It also means doing interviews, answering questions from foreign translators, dealing with taxes, etc." Read a Cynsations interview with Sarah.

Revising your manuscript from Samantha Clark at Day by Day Writer. Peek: "Think those award-winning books or bestsellers were brilliant the day their authors typed The End? Think again. Most writers go through revision after revision after revision."

Youth Tribes, Double Bottom Line & Multiple Platforms by Anastasia at YPulse: Youth marketing to teens, tweens & Generation Y (Gen Y). Peek: "It's not that racial identity is no longer important to young people or that there aren't differences to be aware of, but that's just one part of their identity and not necessarily the part to target in a campaign."

Ten Writing Tips by Verla Kay - Part 1. Peek: "Believe that what you are writing is worthy of being read. Believe that you can do this, that you can write and finish a story so compelling, so entertaining, so special, that editors and kids will love it and 'have' to read it." Read a Cynsations interview with Verla Kay.

The winner of the paperback copy of Sacajawea by Joseph Bruchac (Harcourt, 2008) was Rebecca in Alaska, and the winner of the ARC of Pure by Terra Elan McVoy (Simon Pulse, 2009) was Skipper in Michigan! Thanks to all who entered! Read Cynsations interviews with Joe and Terra.

Thank you to the Cedar Park (TX) Public Library for your hospitality last weekend! Through a grant program, the library sponsors a YA book club to bring in local authors and purchase copies of their latest book for participants. Other recently featured Austin area authors include April Lurie and Jennifer Ziegler.

Cynsational Interns

Robin Galbraith holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Kate Pentecost holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the YA author of Elysium Girls (Hyperion, winter 2020). Kate is represented by Sara Crowe of Pippin Properties.